On 8/7/2015 10:15 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> On Friday, August 7, 2015 at 3:27:21 PM UTC-4, dsi1 wrote:
>> On 8/7/2015 12:40 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>>> On Friday, August 7, 2015 at 4:22:33 AM UTC-4, dsi1 wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't think the West has much of a history with the taste. The
>>>> Japanese do because they have been fermenting rice and soybeans
>>>> utilizing Aspergillus oryzae for a couple of thousand years. At it's
>>>> heart, the umami taste is the end result of fermentation with this
>>>> fungus. They use it to produce shoyu, miso, sake, shio koji, fermented
>>>> tofu, and other products. This makes A. oryzae the most important fungus
>>>> to the Japanese and is responsible for much of the flavor of Japanese
>>>> cuisine. Only a Japanese could have discovered "umami."
>>>
>>> You get a lot of umami with nicely browned meat. We have a lot of
>>> experience with that, and with a host of other foods that provide
>>> umami: tomatoes, anchovies, hard cheeses, mushrooms, etc.
>>>
>>> Umami is not exclusively a Japanese thing, although they monetized it
>>> when they invented MSG, and they provided us with a name for it.
>>>
>>> Cindy Hamilton
>>>
>>
>> I understand that the West has foods with umami flavors but to the
>> average Westerner, umami is a mysterious thing. The reason is because
>> most of them were not raised with shoyu or fish sauce as their national
>> condiment. Hawaiians understand it because they put shoyu on everything
>> - from fish to stews, heck we put shoyu on rice. We totally get the
>> concept.
>
> We get the concept, but we don't talk about it. We just eat
> umami-rich foods and say "Yum".
>
> There's a lot more to umami than shoyu or fish sauce.
>
> Cindy Hamilton
>

I have to agree with you there - there's no need to talk about umami.